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Greetings fellow bloggers, today we’re gonna talk about a fairly new MMORPG, in stores as of September 22nd 2009, and 3 days afterwards it was released in Europe. The first release was in South Korea, where it was released November 28th of 2008, under the name ”Aion, The Tower  of Eternity”, however since the release in the US, for commercial reasons it now is the one word  title, Aion.

Aion is a MMORPG, similar to World of Warcraft. The game is, as you will be able to see in some images I will show, beautiful in graphics, with a lot of Asian influence. The funny part of the graphics is that it’s build on an engine I think everybody knows. The CryEngine, previously used in for example the graphic piece of art, Crysis. The fact that a MMORPG is build on an engine like this is exciting cause usually MMORPG’s use engine’s primarily to present the old fashion vibe, it’s not meant to be mind splashing to watch, but to enjoy the game as it is supposed to be. Aion successfully mixed these two components into a MMORPG perfectly! Props for the Aion Team for this. The detail put in the game compared to other MMORPG’s is simply astonishing.

Aion in the game is a god that created the world Atreia, humans and the Balaur to protect these humans. The Balaur, led by the 5 strongest among them, entitled the Dragon Lords. however got obsessed with power, and domination. Their goal was to enslave the human race, so they began destroying everyone not submitting to them. The Balaur in the end would demand their own creator, Aion, the power of their desire, Aion however refused and created 12 Empyrean Lords to make a safe haven, the Tower of Eternity, containing all the energy of the world, where humans were able to seek shelter en repopulate the earth. In this process humans began ascending to higher being’s, called ”Daeva’s”. These Daeva’s had the ability to fight the Balaur, and thus, time went by and there were enough Daeva’s to create an army to fight off the Balaur and take back their world. This war went on endlessly, until one of the Empyrean lords, Israphel, also one of the two Guardians of the Tower proposed the concept of peace towards the other Lords. 5 of the Empyrean Lords, led by Azphel disagreed, however the second tower guardian, Siel, agreed to this offering, and the decision was sealed. The 5 Dragon Lords were invited into the Tower to speak about the peace offering. However, as soon as the Dragon Lords entered the tower, one was swiftly killed by one of the Empyrean Lords, the dragon lords responded by destroying the tower, destroying Atreia as it was known. Atreia was split into two parts, Elysea and Asmodae. The Empyrean Lords were forced to give their life energy to make sure these two pieces would not end up floating away in space. 10 of the original 12 survived, the 5 opposing peace, now called the Shedim Lords moved to Asmodae, the upper part of the world, the part where there is only darkness and no sun. The other 5 went to Elysea, under the name of the Seraphim Lords.

Who are you?

You are able to choose between being a Asmodian, or an Elyos. The Elyos are regular humans, gifted with beauty, considering their constant exposure to light. The Asmodians however, adapted to the situation, their constant fight with beasts gave them claws, the absence of light made their eyes glow red, and the weather was constantly cold, adapting them, giving them some sort of furry mane on their back for warmth. In this whole story you can consider Elyos being the good guys, and the Asmodians the bad guys, however they simply fight for what they believe. You are to choose on of the core classes; Scout, Priest, Mage and Warrior. All of these classes give you an insider on the start, however as soon as you hit level 10 you will be able to choose your actual class. The Scout will be able to choose between being an Assassin or a Ranger. The Priest will be able to choose between a Cleric or a Chanter. The Mage will be able to choose between a Sorcerer or a Spiritmaster. The Warrior will be able to choose between a Gladiator or a Templar. These Classes seem pretty straight forward, but for those wanting more info on these classes, I’ll sum it up briefly;

The Ranger will be able to pretty much use any weapon, but their skills are based on bows, there are some skills requiring swords however. The Ranger can auto-attack with arrows while moving, meaning you can kite mobs very well, however this does not make you some sort of untouchable being, you will be hit very hard by any attack to balance it out.

The Assassin is pretty much what it says it is, you’re using two blades to kill your opponents, while lurking in the shadows, pretty much what every game’s version of an assassin allows you to do.

The Cleric is pretty much the healer in the whole game, your spells are focussed on healing, and this is what you will be needing to do, as your damaging spells are lesser compared to the other classes, the Cleric is however the most wanted class in the game, giving you a nice advantage if choosing one.

The Chanter is a mix of a Cleric and something people like, a buffer. You’ll be able to give your party and yourself stunning buffs increasing all kinds of stats, but also to heal, however your heals will be lesser compared to the Cleric, as your buffs do most work, this is a much wanted class to have in your party too.

The Gladiator is simply a melee combatant, you’ll be fighting with large two-handed weapons like Axes, Swords and Pikes, in order to deal heavy damage. Foe’s are going to hit you pretty hard too, however, as you are constantly within their melee/casting range if you want to attack them.

The Templar is a tank, whom simply has a lot of health, and can take on several mobs at a time with his protective abilities, however your damage is very lesser compared to other damage dealing classes, as you are supposed to take NPC attention (aggro) so the DPS can go all out. The Templar is most probably the most wanted class in the game, as there aren’t many templars.

Another very nice feature is the Abyss, this is a hell-ish kind of place, where basically all the wizznits happen, you will be able to fight the Elyos/Asmodian here, where the actual winged PvP is finally introduced, here you will be able to fly into the air using your wings to position yourself in the sky, and using it in combat, there are occasions in PvE to use this too. And let me tell you this, this is AWESOME.

The story behind these classes will be that you are on of the ascended Daeva’s, a great fallen warrior of your side’s army, along these quests you will see your past. You will be aiming to get to the level cap of level 50. This by questing, farming and all these things. Along the way you’re going to build up your skill system, which is based on chains, meaning you need to cast [Spell X] to cast [Spell Y] followed by [Spell Z], however there are skills without chains too, meaning you can just work out your own routine. Apart from this, the character customization is very enhanced too, you will be able to choose between 33 male haircuts and 32 female ones, you’re able to change the weight, height, scale of just about anything. There are some easter eggs involved in the character customization too, have a quick look at David Beckham Aion style for example:

Summing this up, Aion is a great game, the only disappointment is how fluently the switching from casting a spell to walking works, but this is just a matter of opinion if you ask me.

Aion official trailer:

So tell me bloggers, what kind of person are you? Asmodian or Elyos?

Signed,